The Supreme Court on Monday asked a petitioner wanting cancellation of the licence of drug manufacturer Ranbaxy for evidence to show its medicines were adulterated, which is part of the charge.

The petition is by a lawyer, M L Sharma, saying as the American drug regulator has found medicines produced by the Indian company unfit there, the company should not be allowed to function in India. A bench of judges Gyan Sudha Misra and Madan Lokur asked him to provide some convincing evidence for his charges on Tuesday.

They said the matter was serious but they could not act on only newspaper reports. They observed the quality standards in the US might be different, the consignments in question different; medicines sold in India might be of good quality. More, it was a district court where the settlement and admission of Ranbaxy was recorded.

Unless a copy of the order of the settlement and order of the court there were produced here, “we cannot act on mere suspicion”, the judges said.

More, there was no complaint from any hospital here and no incident to prove the medicines sold here were harmful. Sharma argued the US regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, had investigated the issue for four years and issued two warning letters, after which the said action had been taken, following which Ranbaxy had admitted to the charge.